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11 Music

Personalising Your iTunes U Course

11 Music

Personalising Your iTunes U Course

Setting up Your Class Course

Now that the timetable has been released we are in a position to connect classes, courses and teachers.

As you will be aware from our iTunes U professional learning sessions, every Year 9, 10 and 11 teacher must provide an iTunes U course for his or her classes at each of those levels. Some departments have assigned one teacher the role of year-group supervisor and he or she is preparing a generic course which will then be shared to the other teachers of that year group — this is certainly the most effective approach, and Emily or I can help you with this. Ownership of the course will subsequently be transferred to each teacher so that he or she can then make it their own for using with his or her class. This personalisation of a course is a key benefit of the iTunes U model.

Accepting a Course

If your year-group or assessment-level course has been set up by one person in your department, they will then send you a copy of the course so that you can become the Instructor and personalise the course to suit your class and teaching style.

A red notification badge appears on your Instructor Profile at the top right of your screen: tap the icon and you'll see that you have an item in your Inbox.

Tap Accept. The next view gives you a choice of making the course self-paced or in-session. Check that the in-session dates are correct for the year and tap Next.

The next view shows the course creator and adds your name: tap your name to become owner of the course. Tap Done.

You can then make the necessary changes to the course name, etc., in the Administration section when you open the course.

You will also receive an email advising that you have been sent a copy of a course: this provides a link if you are using your laptop or desktop for course management.

Notification

The red badge notifying you that you have something in your inbox.

Accept the Copy

Tap Accept: the next view allows you to check the course duration before proceeding.

Switch Instructors

Tap your name to become the course instructor.

Notification

The red badge notifying you that you have something in your inbox.

Accept the Copy

Tap Accept: the next view allows you to check the course duration before proceeding.

Switch Instructors

Tap your name to become the course instructor.

Personalising Your Course

When you open the Administration section of your new course, you'll have to change the Course Name and the Short Name to that of your class. The protocols for this are below, but the Short Names for the Year 11 Music classes are…

11.MUS.IG — Chris Artley

11.MUS.N — Nicholas Forbes

I have yet to prepare course images for the two Year 11 Music courses: just use the generic Horizon course image in the meantime and I will send you the proper ones before the start of term.

King's College Course-naming Protocols

It is vital that we observe some set rules for naming courses for the sake of consistency.

for Year 9 and 10 classes: the class name (e.g. 9.BAI, 10.FEB) or the year group (Y9 or Y10) for a generic course). This would therefore read Mathematics 9BAI or English 10FEB. For languages and option classes use the alpha-numerical form (e.g. French Y9a or Music Y10b).

for other Year 11, 12 and 13 courses: revert to the rule for Year 9 and 10 classes (e.g. Positive Education Civics Y11).

The Short Name for a class course is the name that appears in your timetable, e.g. 9.PED.MEG, 10.POS.OCT, 11.ACC.IGa.

Creating a Course from Scratch

Without the luxury of someone in your department creating a course, you will have to create a course from scratch. It is a relatively simple procedure which we went through in the first professional learning session in Term IV.

These three instructions should be enough to get you started: there will be more detail in iTunes U Course Creation and Management (enrolment code DYC-KCH-JFH) soon or you can download a PDF guide here.

Create a New Course

Open iTunes U…

Tap the + icon and select Create a Course.

Entering the Course Details

Enter the subject followed by the class, year group or assessment type (see below for the protocols).

Enter the short name: this is your class as defined in Synergetic (e.g. 9.MAT.BAI).

Enter the department.

Add a course description: this should be as full as possible and will probably complement your Course Outline.

Add a Course Image

Images for King's College iTunes U courses must all conform to the brand design and be copyright free. The template is a 600 x 600 pixel Keynote slide exported as a PNG image: the easiest way to prepare your course image is to request one from me, then download it to your Camera Roll.

Tap the Add Image icon.

Select Choose Photo.

Select the downloaded image from your Camera Roll.

Create a New Course

Open iTunes U…

Tap the + icon and select Create a Course.

Entering the Course Details

Enter the subject followed by the class, year group or assessment type (see below for the protocols).

Enter the short name: this is your class as defined in Synergetic (e.g. 9.MAT.BAI).

Enter the department.

Add a course description: this should be as full as possible and will probably complement your Course Outline.

Add a Course Image

Images for King's College iTunes U courses must all conform to the brand design and be copyright free. The template is a 600 x 600 pixel Keynote slide exported as a PNG image: the easiest way to prepare your course image is to request one from me, then download it to your Camera Roll.